Film co-production as soft power between the UK and China

Dr. Yanling Yang is the PI for the research project ‘Film co-production as soft power between the UK and China’ funded by the Leverhulme Trust.  This research explores the role of film co-productions in promoting soft power, which means a nation’s ability to achieve goals through attraction. Despite the recognised economic and strategic advantages of soft power, the question remains: how can film co- productions jointly promote the soft power of Western and non-Western nations? Against the background of the landmark UK-China Treaty 2014, this research leads to a transformative intervention in intercultural collaboration related to soft power through document analysis, semi-structured interviews and case studies from both Chinese and English sources. Some of the outputs from the project were: two journal articles with Transnational Screens and The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, a special issue on ‘Critical Trends in Transnational Cinema: inter-Asian projects and exchanges’, and a monograph on ‘Making film with China’ (forthcoming, Routledge)